at a glance

By the end of the 19th century the Rio D'Ouro, or 'River of Gold', Railroad was built to enable access to the northern areas of Rio.

The region's railway station was named Coelho Neto in honor of the famous writer and journalist, Henry Maximiano Coelho Neto. As with several other carioca neighborhoods, the local train station was eventually adopted as the name of the district.

In the early 20th Century, the area was widely considered unusable as it was essentially a large thicket, infested by snakes and mosquitoes, with almost no access roads.